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Contributions of subjective-tone to tone-phoneme identification

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Abstract

We measured subjective-tone identification thresholds evoked by acoustically filtered complex tones and compared them to Mandarin-Chinese tone-phoneme identification thresholds previously measured under the same filtering conditions. Tone phonemes were identified at intensities below subjective-tone identification thresholds, suggesting subjective tone is not necessary for tone-phoneme identification. Lower subjective-tone thresholds evoked by resolved harmonics rather than unresolved harmonics were consistent with pattern recognition theories of pitch perception.

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The authors thank Donald Gans and Richard Klich for all their help.

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Stagray, J.R., Downs, D. & Sommers, R.K. Contributions of subjective-tone to tone-phoneme identification. J Psycholinguist Res 21, 511–524 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067528

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